San Francisco Night Caps Rules (2026): What You Need to Know

Under Administrative Code Chapter 41A, Section 41A.5, San Francisco distinguishes between hosted and unhosted short-term rentals and applies dramatically different annual limits to each. A hosted rental is one where the host — the permanent resident who holds the OSTR certificate — is physically present in the unit during the entire guest stay. There is no annual cap on the number of hosted nights; a host may rent a spare bedroom or portion of their home to guests year-round as long as they remain on the premises.

An unhosted rental, by contrast, is one where the host is away from the unit during the guest's stay. Unhosted rentals are capped at 90 nights per calendar year. This 90-night limit was established through the legislative process and reinforced by Proposition F as a compromise between allowing homeowners flexibility to rent their homes while traveling and preventing the conversion of residential housing into de facto hotel rooms. The 90-night cap applies per unit, not per platform, so hosts listing on multiple platforms must track their combined total across all services.

Hosting platforms operating in San Francisco are required to track and enforce the 90-night unhosted cap. Once a host reaches 90 unhosted nights in a calendar year, platforms must stop accepting new bookings for unhosted stays at that unit. Hosts are required to file quarterly activity reports with the OSTR documenting the number of nights rented, whether each stay was hosted or unhosted, and the gross rental income received. An annual report is also required. Failure to file reports or filing inaccurate reports can result in certificate suspension or revocation. The OSTR cross-references platform data with host reports to identify discrepancies and enforce the cap.